Heptner State Hospital* History

This institution has its roots as a state almshouse - a place where the mentally disturbed or challenged were housed along with criminals until the time when they were separated due to the efforts of Dorthea Dix and other mental health activists. It changed to a state hospital for epileptics in 1895, and was the third epileptic institution in the country.

The facility still operates to this day as a state developmental center.

* Note: the name "Heptner State Hospital" is a pseudonym; the real name of this location is currently undisclosed.

Photos of Heptner State Hospital

Carnivora

Photos: 7

Shot: July 2005

Posted: November 2007

About Opacity

This site is dedicated to documenting various abandoned places through both text and photographs; recording their transformations through time before they are demolished. The abundance of abandoned asylums and psychiatric hospitals in the New England area create the bulk of the locations here; these beautiful state funded structures are vast and complex, giving insight to both the humanity and mistreatment towards the mentally ill over the past two centuries.